Citylife Milano

Citylife Milano is a residential, commercial and business district under construction situated a short distance from the old city centre of Milan, Italy; it has an area of 36.6 hectares.

The development has been carried out by a company controlled by Generali Group, that won the international tender for the redevelopment of the historic neighborhood of Fiera Milano with an offer of €523 million. The project is designed by famous architects such as Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki and Daniel Libeskind.

For the Fiera Milano, Zaha Hadid Architects’ tower serves a portal, or gate into the Fiera along Viale Scarampo and Via Bartolomeo. The external skin of the tower is a system of sun-deflecting louvers flanked by a double layer of glazing, Furthermore, the surface of the glazing has a series of ventilating registers that draw outside air through the cavity of the exterior system, thus providing a highly energy-efficient environment for the offices behind.

Citylife Milano´s views and panoramas provided along the height of this office tower move dynamically, sweeping from the Piazza Firenze to the Piazza Giovanni Amendola, while the exterior silhouette clearly demarcates an entry gate into a new, vital Fiera Milano.

A swath of forest intended to restore a native Lombardian ecology will divide the commercial archipelago from the two residential groupings completed last fall. Here, both Hadid and Libeskind arranged several apartment buildings (condo units for sale, with a few rentals) loosely around a large green courtyard, leaving gaps between the buildings to frame views to the neighborhood or park. This scale is common in suburban European developments. In American terms, it falls between Miami-style tower developments and suburban garden apartments. Walkways feed bi-level lobbies through the generous courtyard greenery.

The buildings also focus on the concept of communal living and provide access to services for the residences and specific amenities throughout the day. It also provides individuals with a quick access to main roads creating a kind of integrated passageway to the city’s infrastructure. The residences address the need of creating a compact familial style living that can adjust and adapt to the city’s urban fabric.

Source: zaha-hadid.com